About the Author
News as of 10/1/24:
The Arizona Triangle comes out on 10/22 from HarperCollins under the pseudonym Sydney Graves. This is the first book of a projected mystery series featuring a private eye named Jo Bailen.
The Sacred and the Divine, the first book of a YA trilogy, co-written with Eliza Wolfe, comes out fall 2025 from Hyperion.
I’m currently at work on a new novel whose working title is Good Company.
I live in Taos, New Mexico with my husband and our two dogs.
I love what you write. I can see and even feel some of the things you write about, although I have never been to Maine, human experiences everywhere are compelling. I am in Sydney, Australia and saw that Max Sharam loves you Blog so thought I would take a look…..well worth the read!! Oh and yes I am among many personas a Pilates instructor and am very lucky to have a Reformer for client use in my Studio in Sydney near Manly Beach……which you are welcome to check out if ever in Sydney
I’m hooked….on your writing and your recipes. Amazing!!!!
I read and then I re-read your posts. And I’m reading them again now! And I’m pretty sure I’ll be re-reading everything all over again pretty soon. I know I’m starting to sound creepy but then you do write beautifully. 🙂
Thank you much for a great blog. Great writing.
Kate…think we have much in common, big surprise…live on Nantucket,love to cook and consume too much wine…bring a friend this fall and let’s hang out…good friends with Nancy Thayer…hate the internet and all its derivatives
I was wondering when you moved to Portland? Last I knew you were in Brooklyn.
I live in Portland too. I had to laugh at your description of steak tartare consumed here.
And just to be creepy, I live in Portland too… and I’m a fan. But not a stalk-y type of fan.
Just wanted to say thank you for a refreshing food/writing blog. I enjoy reading your posts and looking forward to the next ones. And I completely understand wanting to tear down the kitchen or other things in the new house and make it your own 🙂
I’d like to get in touch with you, but I don’t know how. I thought The Astral was terrific!
Thank you, May! How can I email you?
Hi Kate,
I just discovered you with “Trouble.” I’m a writer (who isn’t these days?) and I just want you to know how much I appreciate the beauty of your descriptions and your language in conveying them. I couldn’t put “Trouble” down. Thank you, and keep giving us your voice!
Lynn
Ladies! Please excuse my ostensibly rude interruption of this exchange, but as you read on, you will know why I simply had to barge in here, and it won’t seem rude (I hope!)
First, to Kate: I came to your blog here looking for a way to communicate my gratitude at the courage of your memoir. I was about to give up when I happened to look at the comments here and saw this entry by May.
May, I realize that you will not be taking any credit for Kate’s literary achievements, but as a retired HS teacher myself, I know you are very proud and satisfied that one of your students at GMWS found your class to e worth it and then turned out so well in the world.
Secondly, to May, I wish to express my hopelessly belated condolences to you on the passing of your wonderful husband Fred, on All Saints Day 2012. On the other hand, I know that Fred, my favorite Sagittarian, could care less as long as I arrived to pick up the conversation we had left off. (He knew what a sidling Cancer crab I was.)
I met you once in 1980, May, when I was living at 3-fold for 6 months enrolled in Siegfried & Ruth Finser’s Foundation year for Anthroposophy. During the 1981-82 school year, I taught the physics & chemistry main lessons at Garden City WS, and whenever I could, I would make a beeline into Manhattan to visit Fred at 211 Madison where we had quite raucous conversations about everything in the upstairs room.
My last memory of Fred there was probably early 1982 when he was lamenting this impending move upstate to re-locate the library.
Anyway, back to you, Kate, I will report that you have now unleashed a species of “Apocalypso Anthroposophico” on what I deem the “Steiner Internet.” I’m also good Internet pals with Daniel Perez, who was a year or two behind you at GMWS.
Anyway, it’s wonderful meeting both you and May here. Now please pardon my interruption. I know you two have a lot to catch up on.
Best regards,
Tom Mellett
Van Nuys, CA
I worked with Torin Finser, clearly their son, at Antioch New England twenty years ago. My children all went to Waldorf preschool. There are times I wished we’d pursued the Keene Waldorf school for them through eighth grade. Now we are in Kentucky, on a cattle farm, and Rudolf Steiner and his Anthroposophy may as well be from the moon. I do still read some of his writings but would never consider myself an “anthropop” — enjoyed my years working for a baker in Peterborough, NH who went to Emerson College in Forest Row back in the 1970s. That was one of the best jobs I ever had: fined baked goods and lots of philosophical discussions in that bakery!
You nailed it on the clam chowder in today’s NYT. I hate goopy thick clam chowder. Strangely, the best item that my local rinky dink sloped floor market in NJ stocks is 12 to a package cherry stones. What a happy accident! Every time I run into the lady that runs the department I beg her not to change suppliers. Spread the word. No more goopy chowder.
Kate,
I am a non-fiction reader so i am unfamiliar with your other fictional work. Sunday, July 29th a short, must be story, was published in the NYT Book Review section on How to Cook a Clam. As a new resident of Maine, i assume sea coast, you need to complete some research for cooking and eating bivalve delights. When i read your directions to a small group of other locals, Hampton Bays, NY (sea coast community) they all gasped with the same expression, “NO!!!!!!!” Just as the turkey is not rinsed in hot water after removal from the oven; the bivalve is not rinsed after steaming prior to insertion into ones mouth, dunking into melted butter is optional. The delightful liquid from the steaming of the bivalve is to be savored, consumed.
Yes indeed, Maine clams need a good rinse to get the grit off — the hot water should be the steaming water — and the beard has to be removed as well. And I will stick by my melted butter, which is essential, at least for Maine clams, although maybe NY clams don’t need it. I do hope my recipe for chowder elicits a more favorable response! Thanks so much for writing.
There seems to be a lot of discussion as to how to eat steamed clams. I’d like to weigh in with my experience on eating “steamers” the soft shell clam that is slightly oblong and has a long neck that protrudes out. After steaming open the clams, the broth that remains needs to be strained through cheesecloth to remove all the sand and grit. This becomes the dunking broth for the clam before it is dipped into melted butter, if you desire. The dunking broth is used to wash off any additonal sand without loosing the flavor of the clam broth.
entertainingaddict.blogspot.com
Excellent advice — thank you so much!
And I’m going to give you a heresy recipe where you don’t steam them at all. In Arizona, in Puerto Penasco near the Mexican Sea of Cortez, our clams are fat, juicy and not sandy. They can beat any clams back East, hands down. Wash em, toss em in a big pot of simmering Mexican beer like Dos Equis (the light) with some water and a very generous helping of Old Bay seasoning and simmer just until opened. Serve with beer broth and good butter and more Dos Equis!
Hello Ms. Christensen, I enjoyed your article in the Book Review of the New York Times this past Sunday (“How to Cook a Clam”).
I would disagree with you on one point, the “classic” recipe for a New England chowder. Flour was never an ingredient in classic recipes. Potatoes provided all the thickness necessary. I am well aware of how chowders are now prepared–I travelled one summer from Isleboro, ME to Manhattan sampling chowders. But in Maine today there are still several delicious chowders make without flour. Your use of whole milk is accurate, although so many people now include heavy cream.
Hello Kate,
This is Lippy (Michael Lipman). I found your site through a reference in a recent Rosie Schaap NYT article.
I am really GLAD I did! Your writing is at once gentle and fiery (how do you DO that?). Rosie mentioned that you are a tequila aficionado so I wanted to tell you about my live “Tequila Whisperer” video webcast: http://tequilawhisperer.com . We sure a have a raucous – but respectful approach to gourmet tequila tasting over at the show. Maybe you’d like to join us live some time?
In any event I will be happily reading your work regularly from now on.
SalUd,
Lippy
Happy Birthday!
It’s time I thanked you personally for your writing. As a subscriber to more than a few blogs, I’ve got to tell you that it’s a thrill to receive a notification when you, especially, have written something new. Your approach to food is refreshing. Keep it coming, please!
Hi Kate… it’s Ann, your Pilates mate…. just finished The Great Man and loved it and am wondering if any options are out on it… I think a hefty slice of it would make a wonderful play with great parts for older women, which are sorely lacking these days… would love to talk to you about it either after Pilates or another time….
Hi Kate,
I love your writing. How can I get in touch with you?
Hey Kate Christensen – Jeff Wood here. Long time no. Wanted to say hello! Send me an email if yer inclined and got time. All the best!
I’m in the midst of reading Jeremy Thane, your first book for me. It starts off good and gets better by the page. Other than three months in 1949, I’ve never spent time in New York but that doesn’t make a bit of difference in my enjoyment of your book. But this is what prompted my message: I have never met a Thomas Hardy character to whom I didn’t want to say, “Don’t do it!” and they do it anyway. Jeremy is reading JUDE THE OBSCURE and thinks Arabella is the better woman for him. He says, “I wanted to take him aside and explain this to him, but there was nothing for it but to muddle on with my own life instead.” Perfect.
Just finished JEREMY THRANE. I hope you enjoyed writing it as much as I enjoyed reading it.
ciao! luvFAB blog.
thebestdressup
I’ve managed to stumble my way into reading each of your books, each a delight, each remembered fondly. Happy to hear there are more to come. Wonderful blog, too. Thanks so much.
delighted to have found you!
on a rare occasion, the print edition of the Los Angeles Times was purchased and read, lovingly (the book section) and there you were.
*orderingyourbooknow*
delicious.
a. new. author. to. discover. and. relish.
*wavingfromLosAngeles* (with a british accent)
_teamgloria x
Must be something in the Portland water! Hope to reach your literary heights soon.
I enjoyed your interview on Fresh Air.
When were you at the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop? Did you teach Rhetoric? I was a grad student at Iowa 88-90 in the Comm Studies Department and taught Rhetoric.
I actually went back to the family farm I grew up on and have been farming and doing public policy work, mainly representing my community on Capitol Hill.
This link explains a little about me:
http://chroniclenewspaper.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130404/NEWS01/130409992/Chris-Pawelski-stirs-the-muck
This is a link to my blog, which you may find mildly amusing or interesting:
http://muckville.com
I will have to pick up your memoir at the end of my season.
Loved your interview today on NPR and can’t wait to read Blue Plate Special. I love memoirs, and your adventures sound intriguing!
Nancy Simpson
Toronto (via Tempe!)
Just heard your interview on NPR, inspired to read your new book, but also your other books.
I caught your interview on Fresh Air yesterday while working. I had to stop and listen. So many parallels to my life I had to catch my breath! Similar experiences, same places. Thank you for openly talking about Waldorf, groping teachers without consequences, having to support yourself living with strangers while still a child, the 70’s in reality, your struggle to work with your twisted psychological reasoning. I thought I was alone. Now I wonder if there is a whole population of ex waldorfians out there? In any case, thank you. I have found no one who understands this stuff unless they’ve been there, went through that, but you are the first to have voiced it that I know of! Thanks for sharing your journey.
Also, I am looking for a key note speaker for an organic conference in Feb 2014. Someone inspiring to those producing food and to the organic movement but not too pricey (non-profit). Suggestions? Thanks.
Thank you so much for writing. Those were strange years, weren’t they? I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that, too. And about the conference keynote speaker, I strongly recommend Barbara Lynch, the Boston chef and entrepreneur: http://www.foodarts.com/people/silver-spoon/24722/barbara-lynch. Good luck. And thank you again.
Thank you for acknowledging me. It means more than you know!
And thanks for the keynote lead! I will look her up!
Kate: I just read your piece in the Wall Street Journal (20 July) and not only enjoyed it but identified with it – even down to the single cleanliness after the joint messiness. Having been divorced for a year now (after 29 years of marriage), I have dealt with the emotions and mechanics of that separation by happily cooking for myself. I’ve made breakfasts and dinners a celebration to myself. Your description of both the process and the thoughts while enthusiastically cooking for yourself captured the moments beautifully. Your writing was a treat for a Saturday morning. I’m a follower now. Thanks for sharing your work.
Hi Kate: This is Andy Couturier from Reed College days in 1982. So happy for your success. Love to be in touch. I’ve written two books myself, A Different Kind of Luxury, and Writing Open the Mind. Thanks for being a light for me back when we were 18. I enjoyed In The Drink, which I read about 10 years back. Best, Andy
Kate, I heard you on Wisconsin Public Radio today. You mentioned that you can’t eat gluten. You might want to look for Katherine Czapp’s articles on the Weston A Price Foundation website. Her father-in-law suffers from celiac sprue. But, after reading an Italian study that seems to indicate that celiac sufferers can tolerate wheat products that have been lactobacillus fermented, she found that he could eat sourdough bread and sourdough pelmeni. (She gives her recipes.) Sourdough is a symbiosis of a yeast and a lactobacillus. It seems that the fermentation denatures the toxic peptides. I think a lot of foods were fermented to make them more edible. Cruciferous vegetables, for example, contain toxins that can cause thyroid problems. Maybe that was how kim chee and sauerkraut were invented. Wheat contains alkaloids that are mildly addictive. No wonder it is a comfort food.
Hi Kate,
It’s Steven from Skylight Books in L.A. It was wonderful to meet you at the event downtown a few weeks ago. It has bothered me that I told you the wrong Helen Brown when discussing cookbooks Kevin West had talked about during his event for Saving the Season at our store. It was not Helen Gurly Brown…I was confused, just enough whiskey diluting my brain juice. The book is Helen Brown’s West Coast Cookbook, 1952. “It was Brown who first established that there WAS a West Coast cuisine.” The hardback has a lovely cover – take a look online. Okay, now I can sleep at night.
Congrats on Blue Plate Special!
Oh, it was wonderful to meet you too. That was a really fun night. And thank you so much for clarifying! I will find that book, I can’t wait, and sweet dreams.
Dear Kate Christensen,
What a wonderful way of writing! I’m in the middle of “Blue Plate Special” and thoroughly enjoying it, not least because of how you describe Liz, a close friend from my long-ago days at Berkeley. I not only knew your parents, I stood up with them on their wedding day!
Now I’m going to get your other books. Regards to you and to Liz.
Bonnie Walters, Cambridge
How amazing to hear from you. I think my mother, who is visiting me now, just emailed you!
And she did, twice! Thanks so much for putting us in touch!
Bonnie
Katie – you’d have no reason to remember me, but I was a freshman at GMW when you were a senior, and you were always very nice to me. (I was a shy little mouse, and at our prom, when I was standing on the sidelines – in my Gunne Sax dress – you pulled me out on the dance floor and said, “Come on, I’ll teach you to dance!”) I have always remembered you with fondness and kept up with your books. I have my own issues with the 8 years I spent at that school, and am very sorry you went through what you did (I recognized who you were talking about right away.) What a bizarre place it was. Congratulations on the new book!
Kate,
I didn’t know you, but started as a freshman at Green Meadow the year you graduated. I’m hoping you will send your email – I heard about the GMWS issues you raised in Blue Plate Special and wanted to thank you personally for making it public.
Thanks!
Ann
Good Morning Kate,
I have mentioned you in my post today -kathiostrom.com/2013/08/24/an-award-and-a-happy-anniversary – if you’d like to take a look. Have a great day!
I just devoured, literally, your BLUE PLATE SPECIAL in three readings (when I should have been canning tomatoes and cleaning house and working on my next book project) and find a kindred spirit of sorts in your words and life. I observed the local New Hampshire “anthropops” through various dabblings with Waldorf preschools and working off and on between grad school and college years for a fabulous baker in Peterborough, NH who had gone to Emerson College in England. And, well, we have similar “foodways” in our lives (having both been born in 1962), various related family scenarios and estrangements and ultimately, the midlife realization that we can’t escape our past and that it only forms the women we’ve become (I love that first paragraph in your epilogue). I am happy you have found your true soul mate–and on a New Hampshire farm, no less (the subject of a memoir I am now working on)–and now I can’t wait to read your fiction.
Thank you so much for your book–I’m planning to blog about it and recommend it to all of my writer, and non writer friends. And I hope there will be some kind of healing redemption among my own siblings, and mother, as it seems you have found. [And thanks, also, for your unenthusiastic words about Iowa–I briefly considered applying there at midlife but you, and a few others, talked me out of it in some form or another.] All the best, Catherine Pond
Thank you for sharing your stories in Blue Light Special. I’m only sorry I didn’t pace myself better, now I’m finished…time to look up the rest of your books!
Back in July, I was in dire search of a “house cocktail” recipe for my new weekender on Curiosity Lane. The Rye Curiosity I would call it. Any kitchen-whiskey rye, some lemon juice, then topped with ginger beer and a few long shakes of angostura bitters. Saw your article today in the WSJ going public with a twist on my recipe! Great minds…. Ken in CT
I seem to be drawn to books that have ties to food. I picked up your “Blue Plate Special” in desperate search of a new book escape. To me, a good book grabs you from the first sentence on. Yours did just that! Thank you! (I don’t have patience for the kind that many good friends rave about; “it gets good after you get through the first 50 pages…”)
Soon after buying your book, as much as I was cursing an awful cold that prevented me from going to work, I was a grateful for a chance to READ. This is a rare treat for me. I am throughly enjoying your “autobiography of your appetites”, and went to search more of your works, and as a bonus, found your blog, too!
We come from different places and family dynamics, but yet I can identify with many complexities of life that you describe. I could, of course, never be able to articulate those thoughts on paper, as I am not a writer. However, when I read your work, I appreciate it like croisants I can’t make, but sure enjoy eating. I have a bookcase full of cookbooks, and yet most of the time, I do “jazz-cooking”, improvising with ingredients I have at hand. Depending on the moment, I can also equally enjoy a hot dog at a ballpark, and some pricey-for-my-budget oysters. Thanks again for allowing me to travel all over this country, Europe, and your eventful life, just by reading.
Kate
Just read your piece in ELLE “something happened”
Wow.
Seriously. Wow.
*high5fromlosangeles*
Powerful prose.
You’re amazing.
Just saying.
-teamgloria (sophia stuart in RL)
I just read your novel Epicure’s Lament and loved it. It would make a great film. Do you have plans to bring Hugo to the screen?
Kate, I love your writing and was wondering if there was a way I could get in touch with you?
Hello Kate,
I just finished reading your Elle piece “A long forgotten sex crime held my life hostage”
Wow, and Thank You! Having just turned 50, I’m finding myself in a scarily similar place with the sexual abuse disconnect. Replace the teacher with a church deacon, and a much older cousin and a long held the belief that ” it was something that just happened, I was young (14 and 16) and so many girls I knew had it much worse, it doesn’t affect me, why worry about it”.
What I didn’t understand was how it would affect my own sexuality, my failed marriage, and my current relationships. Somehow, through a very repressed upbringing, I was sure I was the only one who deserved the copious amount of shame I have ladled upon myself, since telling anyone was out of the question.
Thank you for your courage to speak, for many conformations that link so closely to mine. I don’t assume that by publishing this one truth that you speak for anyone other than yourself, but since I’ve come to understand that you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a girl who’s been sexually abused I think you could hit the nail on the head for hundreds, if not more.
You have given me much to consider. I look forward to reading more from your perspective, imagination, your books and blog.
With Much Gratitude,
J.F.Lang
Heard you on NPR a few days ago (a re-run) talking about your book Blue Plate Special. It was a synchronistic moment for me. My significant other, who doesn’t speak much of the physical abuse his father dished out to his mother, had just the day before looked me in the eye and said to me that he’d seen a photo of a drive-in movie theater where his mother had taken him when he was very young to pass the time and hide from his father. I am the one in our relationship who always talks about stuff, but I stood there looking at him and I felt a rather stunning lack of ability to speak, largely because of the haunted expression on his face. Like you, he wasn’t at the receiving end of the abuse, it was all directed at his mother. He was an only child and his mother left his father when he was about 5 years old. She died in a car accident when he was 7 and he went to live with his (loving) grandparents. Since he doesn’t talk about it much, and there are many mysteries that surround it all, I decided that reading your book was a good idea for me, and also because you and I have other things in common, like Julia Child, and Laurie Colwin and blogging and so on. I pulled over to the side of the road during the interview and ordered your book. How delightful to discover you and your writing. I started reading today…-Chris
My dear Miss Kate, I have a question for you and wish I knew I could email you instead of commenting. I’ll be a bit vague but I’ll leave you a little bread crumb to follow. If you have any idea about the cooking phenomenon in my post, please let me know. I haven’t a clue why my lovely lamb stew with eggplant and split peas turned on me. I’m afraid to ever use my cast iron dutch oven again and I’m not so sure about eggplant, either.
I have my theories – the skin of the eggplant dyed the entire stew or perhaps the pot was not seasoned properly. It was a frightening experience. Maybe one of your loyal readers knows the answer:
http://mulish.typepad.com/mulish_co/2014/06/my-entry.html
That is a hilarious story. I laughed out loud. What the hell could have caused the blackmouth, the horrible taste?! I can only surmise that it’s the interaction of uncured cast iron with acidic ingredients and black eggplant skin. But why would it taste so epically bad? Why? If you ever figure it out, please let me know. And thank you so much for the breadcrumbs that led me to your blog.
Thank you for considering what might have happened. In my mind you are the calm and wise doyenne of cooking and writing. I guess it must have been a combination of things. I still hope that someday someone will have a definitive answer for me so I am not so gun shy around eggplant. I have one on my counter right now and I swear it’s daring me to cook it every time I walk by.
Hello Kate
Welcome to Portland Maine. Wonderful to hear about your Norwegian interests. An author myself I am finishing the 13th edition of a text that now bares a cover painted by the famous Norwegian painter Sigmund Arseth. Seems like we might have a lot in common— drop a note is so inclined. My wife and I are 100% Notwegian background from Oslo
and Sandnesjoen—
Kate, I just read your fabulous interview in Vogue! I was the photo director of Glamour forever and recently have flirted with Portland as a place to live! Would love to connect esp as I have a dog blog and came across your fab article about dogs and Portland! Blog:
http://Www.mrssizzle.com
Suzannedonaldson@me.com
Love the eric bowman photo!
Happy New Year
Kate,
I am super happy to have found your site after following a trail from the Times. My partner and I are weighing a move to Portland for work – I’m a California native, but living in Boston. Thanks for sharing your stories with all of us.
Wow! A website as beautiful as you and your books. Brava Diva all over the place! Can’t wait for How to Cook a Moose. You will probably have perfected your own gluten free bread by then, but I’ll still make you one when you’re in NYC for a reading. Love, Steve (and a hug to Brendan)
I just read Blue Plate Special and absolutely cherished it. It is my favorite memoir now and helped me to make sense of so many painful things in my own life. I’ve spent the past year and a half falling apart myself, very similar to your own breakdown, and funding my way back to whole again. A very necessary happening I see so clearly now, but very difficult since I am also the mother of four near adult children. Coming to terms with my parents’ divorce and some terrible subsequent abuse nearly killed me but I have come to the other side thanks to some incredible writers, like yourself. I’ve been able to identify with so much of your story, particularly your relationship with your father. I have spent too much of my life trying to be wanted by my father that I have finally been able to let him go and embrace those around me who I do matter to, especially myself. Thank you!! For sharing your difficult story and for lighting the way through the darkness for so many of us who have survived childhood trauma come out better than ever! Wishing you a lifetime of peace and love on this journey.
Dear Ms Christensen
I have just finished reading Blue Plate Special and write to tell you how much I enjoyed your book. Because of the wonders of Google earth and Street view I was able to often vicariously share your travels because of your liberal mention of places and streets. Yes, there was dry and dusty looking East Wildermuth Drive. Phoenix AZ. Allier, France. Bedford Avenue Williamsburg NY. and far too many others to mention which I looked at from the air and on the street.
However, Two places concerning your sister Emily caught my eye (you will see why later).
You mention she met a man named Claus who took her to New Zealand “living alone in the remote Bay of Islands”.
There are only three or four places in New Zealand that could be described as “remote” and the Bay of Islands is not one of them (it is in fact a very pleasant and historic area in that it is the first place european’s settled in the country (preceded by whalers and missionaries). For a short period the town of Russell was the first Capitol of New Zealand. Geographically the country is a long North-South peninsular in the area and nowhere is much more than 15 miles from the ocean.
Later after many years in Australia Emily went with Campbell to stay with his parents in The Bay of Plenty, New Zealand ( “a small, suburban town”.
It happens I live in Mount Maunganui, a large suburb of the small city of Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty.
I wonder what the names are of the Bay of Islands and Bay of Plenty communities where Emily lived – perhaps she still lives in the BOP. Regardless, wherever it was/is it would not have been all that far from where I live.
Thanks for the engrossing read
Yours faithfully
Perry Harlen
Mount Maunganui
New Zealand
Hi Kate,
I would like to buy your new book as a Christmas gift for someone and have to you autograph it. Is this possible?
Thank you,
sarah
Sarah,
I’m so sorry I didn’t get this in time. I am not sure how I would have managed it, but I would have tried. Happy 2016!
Kate
I just finished reading How to Cook a Moose and loved it. I was born in Portland, Maine in 1951 and raised in Standish, Maine. My family has been in Maine since 1639. Although I have lived in the Berkeley, CA area since 1976, I go back to Maine most years to visit family. I felt that you were totally accurate in your description of the character of Mainers. You mentioned that Mainers traditional believe in minding their own business. Here is an example. When a grown man, my wife, children and my parents were waiting in line someplace. I struck up a conversation with a stranger about 15 feet away and we had a great conversation for about 10 minutes. When I walked back to join my family, my father said to me, “Why are you bothering that poor man!”
I did notice one error in your book. You state that high bush blueberries are a cultivated variety unlike the wild low bush varieties. Although the high bush blueberry is the variety cultivated since the early 1900s, it originally grew and still grows wild in Maine around the margins of ponds. These plants are as wild as the low bush blueberries. Because of ease of picking (less bending over) it was the high bush variety that was cultivated. However, there are still plenty of locations around semi-boggy pond margins where the wild high bush blueberries still occur. Love your writing!
I saw your book about middle aged women. You may want to check out
https://confessionsofamiddleagedwomangonewild.wordpress.com
Hello Kate, Just a hello from your old friend from Reed College . I read your piece in the anthology “Bitch” and thought it was great. I have a new book out this August about Japanese organic farmers and anti-nuclear activists, The Abundance of Less. I hope you and yours are well. Best, Andy
Ms. Christensen,
A friend showed me your recent review of a book on alcoholism. It says you’re big fan of drunkalogs. I’d like to send you two of them.
I was Governor George Pataki’s Chief Speechwriter for ten years, which means Pataki delivered about a thousand speeches that were Written While Intoxicated — very intoxicated. My drunkalog extends from Ground Zero on 9/11 to a TWA jail (they have them) to a series of stays at rehabs and mental hospitals. In 1998, I was having a conversation with Peggy Noonan in the backseat of a car. We were stuck in Manhattan traffic. I needed a drink so bad, I jumped out of a car and ran to a bar.
My drunkalog is real. It’s ugly, it’s violent, it’s shocking and it’s funny (even though it’s not).
Anyway, after reading your review, a friend said I should send you my books. Both are doing well on Amazon, although I’ve done nothing to promote them. I needed to write them, that’s all.
The first is about my 25-year drinking career. The second is about getting sober and being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The second one is a lot funnier than it sounds. (The cover of it was number one on Reddit’s Front Page for three hours and featured on Buzzfeed).
Enough self-promotion. The books are 300-plus page each. I will have them sent to you if you are interest in reading them.
Thanks so much for taking the time to consider it. My coordinates are below. 🙂 John C. Wolfe
Just finished The Last Cruise. Are you thinking of a sequel? I’d really like to have one as I’ve fallen in love with all of the characters.
Kate, my name is Bill Bushnell, book reviewer for the Kennebec Journal and Central Maine Morning Sentinel. I am writing to request a review copy of your new novel, THE LAST CRUISE. My bi-weekly review column features books by Maine writers (I reviewed your HOW TO COOK A MOOSE back in May 2016), and your new book might be a nice fit for a future column.
Of course, I cannot guarantee it will be selected for review and review copies are not returned. If this is agreeable, you may send a review copy to my editor: Ms. Sharon Wood, Kennebec Journal, 36 Anthony Avenue, Augusta, ME 04330, phone (207) 621-5690. Of if you prefer, you may send it directly to me: Bill Bushnell, 133 Gurnet Landing Road, Harpswell, ME 04079, phone (207) 729-5285.
Thank you for considering my request.
Best wishes, Bill
Dear Ms. Christensen,
I very much enjoyed reading your interview in today’s Boston Globe. Since I’ve been writing a weekly mystery review blog for over eight years, i was delighted to learn of your fondness for detective novels and of your search for a new series. Here are some of my favorites: Julia Keller’s Bell Elkins series; Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone series, Paul Doiron’s Mike Bowditch series (set in Maine), and Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder series.
May I also recommend a visit to Mainely Murders in Kennebunk? It’s a fabulous used-book mystery store. Well, it’s actually a garage, but it’s filled with mystery novels, both domestic and foreign.
I am very fond of Portland, having a son who lives there and owns a website design and social media company. It’s such a beautiful city.
Best regards,
Marilyn Brooks
Hi Kate,
I just read your interview with Amy Sutherland in the 9/2 Boston globe. You mention that you are looking for a new detective series. I highly recommend Louise Penny’s series set in a small town in Canada on the Vermont border.
Thank you! I’ve read three of them now, thanks to your recommendation, and am looking forward to the rest.
Well, Kate, you’ve done it! “The Last Cruise” is of the highest caliber among all novels I’ve ever read. When is the movie being released? I can’t imagine there won’t be one. For a couple decades, I’ve held in highest esteem the author T.C. Boyle. He is on a pedestal all by himself. No one touches him, but on rare occasions someone comes close. After each of the five previous books of yours that I’ve read, I not only felt that you came close to displaying the unreachable qualities of Boyle’s writing, but that you were his equal. There is now no doubt whatsoever. You join him on the pedestal. (Oh, you PEN/Faulkner winning, Iowa Writers’ Workshop grads, you!) No one, absolutely no one, touches you and Boyle! My Kudos and Congratulations to you!
Susan, this is so nice to hear! I am a fellow fan of Boyle–this is high praise, indeed. Many thanks.
Hi Kate,
Just want to add my voice to the chorus of praise for The Last Cruise. I loved it! And, as always, am eager for. your next book. There’s gluten-free bread waiting for you anytime you’re in NYC.
xox
Steve
I just finished “The Last Cruise” and enjoyed it until the end. I don’t like not knowing what happens – do they get rescued or die; does cruise ship company get sued; what happens to Larry; etc.
whatever happened to “James”? Did he ever marry after you said no? Me thinks he probably is still reeling wondering what could have been stuck at age 30…still dating or trying to get 30 yr old women at age 60…
I’m confused. Does everyone die at the end of “Cruise”? Thank-you
Kate: I found The Last Cruise exciting, riveting, suspenseful. However, I was surprised and disappointed by the ending. I was anxiously waiting to see what happened next. Were they rescued or not? Did they live or not? Will there be a sequel?
Marian and Miles, Thank you for taking the time to send these messages. I wrote the attached a while ago in response to similar questions from readers. http://sandikleinshow.com/writing/why-does-the-last-cruise-end-that-way/
Just finished THE LAST CRUISE, loved it. It was a different genre’ from what I’m usually read but enjoyed it very much. Have you thought about pitching this book to Hollywood?? Face it, the movie going public is tired of remakes, reboots and the like I believe THIS WILL BE DIFFERENT AND A REFRESHING to what’s being shoveled on the screen. But remember RETAIN CREATIVE CONTROL. Hollywood has a bad reputation of ruining NEW AND FRESH IDEAS……
I started reading THE LAST CRUISE and wondered if you were aware that Jewish Orthodix women, especially in the 1950’s were not allowed to even study the Torah, much less have a Bat Mitzvah. That acceptance of women began in the Reform movement in the 1960s. Conservative Jews were much slower to accept and even today, true Orthodox Jews do not allow women much participation.
I didn’t know that–but it makes sense, of course. Thank you for calling this to my attention.
Hi Kate,
I’m an assistant to a film director and producer who is looking to adapt one of your books into a film. What is the best way to contact you/your agent?
Hi Kate. I just want to commend you. I’m reading Jeremy Thrane and I think it’s a beautiful book, from the deceptively loose, fluid narrative flow to all the New York poetry. Jeremy is like the best flaneur. I also appreciate the way everything stops–the whole narrative really screeches to a halt–whenever someone plops down a good plate of food. I’m a travel/food writer (ex-editor at Bon Appetit) and it’s hard to make me hungry. But you do.
Thank you. It is so good to hear that my now out of print second novel, which came out around 9/11 and (I fear) sank without a ripple, has found a reader. I’m delighted that you took the time to come here and tell me!
Hi again Kate. Now that we’re going absolutely nowhere I’ve been rereading some of my favorite novels (Ed White’s A Married Man, Andrew Sean Greer’s Less, and all of Lorrie Moore–a friend of ours here–as well as your fantastically funny In The Drink). I’m doing a piece now for National Geographic (most likely online) featuring 10 novels that let you take a virtual trip in the middle of the pandemic and I’ve included your Trouble as one of the them. The list needs to be vetted by my editor there and NG tends to be very mainstream so I’m not sure if they’ll find Trouble too dark. (Pretty much everything is too dark for NG and the English language is sort of mystery to them; when my pieces migrate online they’re so dumbed down–very short staccato sentences and a very limited vocabulary–that I can’t look at them. )The only one of my outlets that doesn’t patronize their readers is Conde Nast Traveler and one of the favorite feature I did for them, on the very grim Grimms fairytale route (cntraveler.com/stories/2012-02-07/fairy-tale-road-germany-frankfurt-brothers-grimm-raphael-kadushin) would make for a great novel. But in any case if they do approve the list I’ll let you know and alert you when it goes live.
v
I just saw this–and I appreciate the inclusion, even hypothetically. I’ve love to read such a piece. Did it ever run?
I am in a funk, listlessly doing nothing but idle searching on Amazon just in case any of my favorite authors have written a soon-to-be-published novel…..alas, there is nothing….
Do you happen to have one in the works?
Thank you for asking–as it happens, I’m just finishing a novel now.I have no idea when it will be published, but it’s nice to know there’s a reader waiting for it!
I adore your writing, particularly loved “The Great Man”. I am readying for imminent publication my own book (a museum exhibiton catalog) and would like to place this quote by you as an epigraph “The male muse is an unaccountably rare thing in art. Where does that leave female artists looking for inspiration?”. I’d like to credit where this marvelous line first appeared, i.e., was it in a book or an interview, and hope you will see this message in the next month or so and can reply! Thank you so much, Emilie
Emilie, consider this permission to use the quote. Here is its source: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/books/review/Upfront-t.html Congratulations on the publication of your book!
Kate
Thank you, fantastic finally to know the source!!! Appreciate the permission too. The book is to be the catalog for a current exhibition at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, “New Orleans Music Observed: The Art of Noel Rockmore and Emilie Rhys” and we are looking to May/June for publication.
Hi Kate, I would like to download the transcript of the Story Time (Polished English Pronounciation by Audible). Where can I find them. Thanks.
I just read your first memoir Blue Plate Special which I LOVED. I saw your second memoir was set in Maine but then I see you are now in Taos NM ! Did you talk about the reason for this move anywhere ? I am so curious because it seemed like you became a diehard Mainer !
I love Maine so much, and I would never have left on my own. But circumstances dictated our move west–my husband’s work, to be precise. And now I love it here, too. To answer your question, I haven’t written about the move to Taos, at least not yet. Thank you so much for reading my books. It’s so nice to hear from you.
Hi I am Alice Mazuries pal and have the house that shared the corner of your fence. I’m on Walker St next to the red brick Rice owned bldg. Anyway Alice leant me your book Blue Plate Special and I loved it. You I met a few times, but you seemed to be away as much as here so I mostly talked to your husband. The new people are taking good care of the ash tree and so far so good, it seems to be in good health. I took your lead and had Bartlett tree treat mine to avoid the ash bore disease. So far so good here too. It was good to read about places and people I know. Anyway I’m going to the library to get the rest of your books.
Thank you.
Hi I am Alice Mazuries pal and have the house that shared the corner of your fence. I’m on Walker St next to the red brick Rice owned bldg. Anyway Alice leant me your book Blue Plate Special and I loved it. You I met a few times, but you seemed to be away as much as here so I mostly talked to your husband. The new people are taking good care of the ash tree and so far so good, it seems to be in good health. I took your lead and had Bartlett tree treat mine to avoid the ash bore disease. So far so good here too. It was good to read about places and people I know. Anyway I’m going to the library to get the rest of your books.
Thank you.
Christine christine McHale 207-618-394011 Walker 04102Christine christine McHale 207-618-394011 Walker 04102
Christine, hello from Taos–it’s so nice to hear from you, and I’m glad “my” ash tree is thriving. I miss our little corner of Portland and send greetings to everyone, especially Alice. Thanks for saying hi!
I just read your article “what makes me happy now: not drinking” and I wanted to say thank you. I identify with a lot of what you describe. I am also in my 50’s, often feel shy in social situations, and have usually powered through them powered by booze from the age of around 16, and prided myself on outdrinking anyone who will participate. I am about a week into not drinking, and I am not sure its a forever thing, but right now am definately enjoying the benefits. Thank you for being so honest and putting yourself out there.
Lo and behold! I’ve just discovered the forthcoming existence of Welcome Home, Stranger. Such exciting news, both the novel itself and the appealing subject matter! December 5 is eons away though. Any chance you have some short stories squirreled away that could be published here and there, now and then? Just a little something to keep whetting your readers’ appetites whilst we impatiently wait for book-length works.
Thank you so much for your enthusiasm! Alas, I’m not writing stories at the moment. I’m delighted that you’re excited to read my new novel–I’m very grateful to know that there are readers like you out there. Thanks for taking the time to write.
Thanks right back to you for posting a new bio update at the top of this page. Great to know about what’s forthcoming! Congrats on having an Iowa Wrtiters’ professorship among the feathers in your cap.
Hi, Kate, from an indie bookseller and poet in the Catskills. So much in the new novel (just gobbled up the ARC) resounds with me, as a child-free-and-loving-it, middle-aged woman with tremendous climate anxiety. This was a wonderful introduction to your work, and I’m eager to tackle your other novels.
Sometimes when I find myself relating to a character and an author’s ethos/perspective, it makes me sadder when there are clashes with that. I found that cognitive dissonance here with Rachel’s profound understanding of the climate catastrophe and its causes, but then her choice to eat animal products. You’ve painted her thoroughly enough that I know she knows their impact in the planet, and how easy it’d be in places like DC and Portland to make climate-friendlier choices; and she connects so sensitively with Wanda that I think she’d be aware that consciousness isn’t reserved for our species and canines alone. People are complicated, and of course there are plenty of climate-intelligent and dog-loving people who still choose to consume animals and what comes out of them, so it’s reasonable that she’d fit into that category. I think I was just sorry to see it! Well, thanks for at least bringing up so many layered perspectives on how to live now.
First of all, thank you so much for this letter–for reading the ARC and for taking the time to write. I wanted Rachel’s relationship with food to be exactly as complicated and contradictory as you’ve described it. She knows full well how toxic a lot of food is, including organically grown vegetables (thanks to Wallace) and also the toll the meat industry takes on the planet. Eating for her is fraught and causes a lot of cognitive dissonance. In the end, she eats with her tribe, what they eat. She chooses this, for better or worse. Hamburgers with her sister, corned-beef hash with the Gautreau family at the end. This was deliberate on my part, and you are an astute reader for catching it! Many thanks, again, for your letter.
Kate, who is your publicist at Harper? I would like to request a review copy of WELCOME HOME, STRANGER. I’m the book reviewer for two Maine newspapers and would like to consider your new novel for a future review column. Shall I contact your publicist or request a review copy through this website? Please advise.
Thank you and best wishes, Bill Bushnell
Hi, Kate: I just read the profile of you in the Tempo and am delighted to learn that you live in Taos. I’ve been a great fan of your novels for years and would be so pleased if you would consider doing a reading at the gallery I manage in town. You can check out our website: http://www.thewrightcontemporary.com to learn more. We have a beautiful quilt show up now by a local artist–they’re truly stunning (I try to get away from the kitsch esthetic that governs a lot of the art venues around here). I’d be honored if you’d like to stop by (the artist, Terrie Mangat, is giving a talk this Sunday, the 18th, at 3 p.m.) All best, Ann Landi
Thank you so much–I will definitely stop by and introduce myself.
I just finished your book, Welcome Home, Stranger. I read it straight through. Great story, great writing. Our library has quite a few of your books, so I will definitely read them and pass along your name. I was excited to read the back page and see you in Taos. There is much to learn there. Thank you.
Hi Kate, I’ve just finished Blue Plate Special and am looking forward to reading your novels now! Your work was recommended to me because another reader noticed we have a few things in common. I’m also a Reedie and a Waldorf kid (my dad knew your grandmother)- I grew up near Simon’s Rock and really enjoyed your descriptions of the Hawthorne Valley area. Thank you for your writing. Sending my greetings from Portland, Oregon.
Erin, I just saw this–I haven’t checked this site in a while. What a lot of commonalities. TWho is your dad, and how did he know Ruth? When did you graduate from Reed, and which Waldorf school did you go to? Thank you for writing!
Last fall, my husband was looking through authors on Amazon. I got a text from him saying, ” I think I found her! I found our Katie!” I immediately looked to see what was available on audio as I, unfortunately, have very little time to actually sit and read. The Last Cruise ” was the first then followed with “Blue Plate Special”, “The Asteral, and then waited impatiently for, “Welcome Home Stranger”. PHENOMENAL! But then, you always were in my book. Ray and I both have spoken of you, wondered about you, thought and prayed for you over the years. Always hoping we would reconnect with you at some point. Would love to hear from you. No matter what, we will always be amongst your biggest fans.
Be Blessed!
Eilene, hello and thank you for writing–how amazing to hear from you.
I won in Goodreads giveaways a copy of “The Arizona triangle”. It just arrived today and I am thrilled to jump into it and read. I wanted to thank you and will post reviews on goodreads and Amazon once done! Thank you!